Down The Memory Hole: On Donna Brazille on HBO's "K Street" in 2004

Ported over from a comment I left at C&L 1/1/07 on a thread about CNN mispelling US Senator Barack Obama's name with that of a notorious terrorist who *yet* to be brought to justice.

Speaking of Donna Brazille, TBH, http://www.haloscan.com/ comments...0113201#1465076

During the election season of 2004, Brazille did a cameo on George Clooney/Steve Soderburgh's little seen HBO mini-series, "K Street" shot on location in Franklin Park, at 14th and K Street, NW, talking with Matalin & Carville's fictional, multi-ethnic, Wunderkind, faux lobbyist character named Francisco, on a park bench, that I used to go by every working day when I lived there.

(Always a trip when something that's that so dailylil in my life familiar appears on a nationally broadcast TV show.)

This was when, on the show, the fit hit the shan at their fictional lobbying firm, with the Justice Department closing in on them for some shady deal that they were in the middle of, and instead of Brazille telling this Francisco character that they, Matalin & Carville, were going to "hang him out to dry", "or throw him to the wolves", or some such other euphemism, Brazille instead told him something along the lines that Francisco should watch out for himself because the 'white boys in DC always take care of their own' but also that he should always be aware that he was in 'Chocolate City' as well.

I couldn't help but think of the firestorm that would have erupted if the negative was flipped and someone of her position was white and made disparaging comments about corrupt black lobbyists to a white colleague.

Then about a year later New Orleans Mayor Nagin nearly got nailed to the tree for using the same "Chocolate City" language.

I'm not real big on double standards, and it really irks me when someone from our team, like Brazille, who knows better, effs up like that.

We simply just can't afford a Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond type gaffe like that, even on a fictional, Roman A Clef type TV show that nobody watches, except a bunch of C-SPAN weenies and assorted sundry wonks.

There's too much at stake now for us to be doing stupid stuff like that, because the Reich wing-nuts are waiting for us in the hall, loaded for bear, with sharpened knives and brass knuckles, just lying in wait for any and every opportunity that may present itself to pounce on, no matter how minor.

Don't believe it?

Look at the frenzy they went into over Kerry's botched joke.

That, and we've got to find a way to close ranks, circle the wagons and march in lock-step, a set of skills that the Republicans have mastered, yet seems to elude us still.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given every indication that she's gonna be cracking the whip, starting this Wednesday, yay.

Let's hope she follows through.

~nyc